First off, when looking for the webpage,
it's helpful to know the URL, www.uberclok.com. Searching by company name
doesn't show their site in the top 10 hits, and it's even more likely users will
misspell the name as "uberclock" and get
hits for a software utility. Once at the webpage, we find a fairly clean and straightforward
layout, with generally good information. There are currently two models, the Ion
and the Reaktor. The Ion was "designed" to run up to 1680x1050, while
the Reaktor model is recommended for anything above that.

Clicking on "Buy" will direct
you to a separate website with the ordering options. Configuration options are available
for each model, but the options are limited compared to some other vendors that
offer vast arrays of choices. In general, we agree with Überclok's approach of providing
only a few quality choices for each item. This avoids confusing the average gaming
consumer, who likely is relying on the PC vendor's opinion of what is "the
best" considering they are skipping the DIY option. We also appreciate their
honesty on several of the options, particularly the Killer NIC ("Cost conscious?
You don't need a Killer NIC.") and antivirus solution (AVG Free is recommended).
One thing we disliked is that you cannot view shipping and handling charges until
after creating a profile.

Summing up the website layout and content:

Pros

Quality component choices

Simplified ordering options and honest explanations of choices

Reasonable OS and hardware upgrade pricing

Dual-boot options

Cons

Cannot view "final"
cost with shipping and handling without creating a profile

Portions of the ordering page seem very new (i.e. About our Site in the Help area is presently
blank)

Support

As mentioned previously, Überclok warranties
their systems for three years parts and labor. Should a component fail, Überclok
covers shipping both ways, which is a nice addition. If the consumer wants to ship
the entire system for diagnosis or repair, they must pay for shipping, but Überclok
will pay for return shipping. This is slightly unfortunate, but reasonable for a
smaller vendor. They also offer a 30-day money back guarantee if the buyer is not
satisfied, excluding shipping and handling fees. This is a great option for peace
of mind.

The Support page definitely has
a personal small-company feel, which could be viewed as a plus or a minus. A quote
from the Customer Support page:

"Speak to an actual human
being! Our hours are 9-5 Central Time, Monday - Friday. We also answer the phones
whenever we are putting in extra hours (which is all the time!), so go ahead and
try us evenings and weekends too."

The number is toll-free but as
noted above is not 24 hours, unless the guys at the office happen to be hopped up
on Red Bull.

Now that we're acquainted with
the company, how do their systems perform?

They used to do Customer Service stuff on AT back in the day on motherboard reviews, and some system builds too. Would definitely like to see that if I'm to think about recommending the possibility of this company to friends; so that I can avoid long-distance support. Reply

On the subject of long-distance support, I can assure you that we won't ever out-source our phones overseas. We know how quickly an aggravating customer support experience can lose customers for us, so we will always make sure our phone reps:

I think by "long distance support" he meant he could recommend you guys as system builders for his friends, rather than him building and supporting custom systems for his friends. Kind of like how system builders will often recommend Dell or someone else for simple systems, purely so they don't have to support it themselves.

But it's nice to know you guys do feed your reps :) Otherwise they start eating each other, and you often lose your best ones to less technically inclined - but hungrier - reps. Reply